Mountain View High presents WASC self‑study; board hears action plan focusing on multilingual and special‑education students

Mountain View High School staff presented the school’s Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) self‑study and the visiting committee’s feedback during the Jan. 13 Mountain View‑Los Altos board meeting.

Darren Dressen, a Mountain View chemistry teacher who served as a self‑study coordinator, summarized the process the school used — five focus groups meeting repeatedly last spring, a visiting team that toured roughly 100 classrooms Nov. 17–20, and a self‑study report tied to classroom observations and stakeholder input. Dressen said the visiting committee reported several strengths, including staff, active parent involvement, facilities and students’ classroom behavior; he also said the team noted the school’s self‑identified need to improve equitable outcomes for specific learner groups. He described the visiting team’s verbal feedback that indicated a six‑year accreditation with a three‑year midterm visit was expected, but he said that formal accreditation paperwork had not yet been received.

The visiting team and school self‑study surface three priority growth areas: intentional collaboration among course teams, building relational trust and leading with the rationale for changes, and clearer systems for monitoring student learning. School staff told the board they are expanding co‑teaching (from about 13 co‑taught classes to roughly 29), aligning teacher prep time to enable collaboration, and developing discrete tasks tied to a school‑wide action plan. Key action items shown to trustees include focused course team collaboration for multilingual learners and students with special‑education services, a professional learning plan, articulation of horizontal content and vertical skills, and a clearer, system‑driven course selection process.

Why it matters: The WASC process guides accreditation and school improvement planning. Trustees discussed how the action plan will connect to district documents such as the Single Plan for Student Achievement and how the district will track both leading indicators and outcome measures over months and years.

Board members pressed staff on measurement and timelines. Staff said some initiatives will show early, leading indicators within six to 12 months, while other changes — such as instructional practice shifts and master‑schedule adjustments — may require multiple years to demonstrate effects on state‑level assessment measures. Heather Morelli, an assistant principal who presented portions of the self‑study, emphasized the visiting committee’s strength findings, including increases in U‑G‑A‑C course approvals, expanded co‑teaching, wellness center development and improved graduation rates for some underserved groups.

The board asked staff to return with specific data points that support the self‑study conclusions and to present a district‑level strategy for monitoring progress. Trustees and staff said the district will incorporate WASC recommendations into the Single Plan for Student Achievement and use that document to set measurable goals tied to the WASC action plan.